Election a bad dream for Pocono Republicans

Whether you spent the last 10 months as pro-Mitt Romney or just anti-Barack Obama, Tuesday night was a hard pill to swallow.

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By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

poconorecord.com

By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Posted Nov. 8, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Posted Nov. 8, 2012 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Whether you spent the last 10 months as pro-Mitt Romney or just anti-Barack Obama, Tuesday night was a hard pill to swallow.

So was Wednesday morning.

"I went to bed dismayed, and I woke up just as dismayed," said Anthony Cottone, a 51-year-old Republican from Tamiment. "I just couldn't believe we were getting another four years of this guy."

That's how many Republicans and Romney supporters went through Wednesday, the day after they found out that Obama would be in office for the next four years.

Romney conceded to Obama early Wednesday morning after 10 months of back-and-forth discourse that divided much of the country along red- and blue-state party lines.

Republicans were left with a bad taste in their mouths after Romney lost one of the most-talked-about elections ever.

"It was like waking up this morning with the worst hangover," said Lance Mirkin, a 52-year-old Republican from Pocono Lake.

"I was surprised, actually," said Mike Dougherty, a 46-year-old Republican from Cherry Valley. "I felt pretty confident going into the night. I didn't sleep so well."

Ana Velez, a therapist with Hope Counseling Services in Brodheadsville, said it's natural for someone to be depressed, angry and disappointed after an election.

However, she said the easiest way to pull yourself out of it is to make personal goals for yourself that don't depend on the government.

"And just be happy and hopeful that they have a job, and they have family and friends that are there for them," she said.

Mirkin said he saw it as a reverse "Bradley Effect," a theory about white voters saying they would vote for a black candidate, but on Election Day actually voting for the white candidate.

He said the pre-election polls showed a closer margin than the actual results, and he believed that white voters who said they were voting for Romney may have voted for Obama.

"It's a strange phenomenon," he said. "It looked like it was going to be much closer. It's tough to explain."

In the end, however, he said it's the job of every citizen to get behind the current president in his second term.

"I remember reading Ann Landers when I was a kid, and I remember her saying, 'No matter who is the president, we all must respect him,'" he said. "I'm just hoping we can all meet somewhere in the middle. You can't sit there with an upset stomach for the next four years."